We awoke to such dark skies and rain that we considered abandoning our planned trek to the Mayan temple of Xunantunich (Shoo-nahn-too-neech) in the Cayo District of Belize. After procuring some plastic rain ponchos we decided to brave the weather and undertake the bus trip and mile long walk needed to reach the ruins.
The Mayan Gods smiled on our fortitude.
Judging from comments, my readers are a well traveled lot. I’d like to draw on that experience in trying to piece together the next leg of our RVing route. When we return from Central America, we’ll spend a couple weeks in Houston; exploring the city and catching up on all the chores we’ve been neglecting the past two months. After that, we’ll hit Austin, maybe Big Bend, and then, well, we don’t really know.
You can see from the map were we’ve been, and where we haven’t. We’re planning on charting a northerly course up AZ/NM, CO/UT and WY over the spring and summer. I know there is a ton to see in that region of the country but we haven’t researched anything yet, so suggestions are welcome. The biggest challenge I’m seeing is finding interesting stops between Austin and Arizona (we’ve already covered a bunch of good stuff in NM). Maybe I just have to accept the fact that a couple of long driving days are in my future.
Well crowd, what do you think?
To us, Bill Clinton is what success looks like. Not because he’s a two-time former U.S. President who could have rested on his laurels after leaving office but instead parlayed his fame and energy into a charitable foundation that is doing tremendously good work around the world. His accomplishments certainly meet any conceivable definition of success. But our meaning is a bit more personal.
This past year Shannon has accomplished things that most freelance writers only dream about. She’s progressed to the point where editors have started approaching her with writing assignments, instead of her having to research, pitch and scrounge for every story. Financially, it was her second best year ever, notwithstanding the fact that most of her time is spent gallivanting around the world. But most impressively, she wrote the March-April 2012 cover story for Arrive Magazine (download the PDF version here) and got to interview our 42nd President for two separate publications (she also wrote a short piece on his most recent book for an industry newsletter called Shelf Awareness). It is a career highlight any journalist (and anyone really) would be proud of.
That she accomplished all of this while traveling full-time is a testament to her dedication and her excellent work. It is also a statement about the things you can make happen once you commit yourself to them.
We often get asked how people like us make money on the road. The short answer is through a lot of persistence, creativity, adaptability and good old fashioned hard work. For a longer answer, stay tuned for next week’s post, How to Create a Mobile Business.
Something strange has happened to us recently. When we first set out on our trip, roughly two years ago, we’d answer the common question of “how long are you planning to RV?” by saying, “until we’re done.” Rather than being flip, that answer is as close to the truth as we could get. We simply didn’t know how long, we just figured we’d keep doing it until we didn’t want to do it any longer.
As we set out on this particular chapter, we never really tried to look over the horizon. We didn’t know where it would lead, and didn’t really care. We always knew at some point we’d have to start drafting a script for the next chapter, but we didn’t spend too much time thinking about it. That is until now.
After an hour long drive and a forty minute hike we arrived at a place that might have been Eden. The entrance to Belize’s Actun Tunichil Muknal cave is submerged in a pool of water made ice blue by dissolved minerals. The morning sun flickered through the trees, illuminating the vibrant greens of the jungle trees and moss covered rocks. It was peaceful, lovely and alive.
Appearances are deceiving, though. This wasn’t the entrance to paradise. It was the opening to Xibalba (”shi-ball-bah”), the underworld of the ancient Mayan people. The story told here is not one of creation, but of sadness, desperation, and decline.
We went to Actun Tunichil Muknal to simply explore another cave system, the fifth of our recent travels. What we found instead was something unlike anything we’ve ever seen.
Everywhere Once 